SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART
Aluminum or copper bus bars formed as rods are often used for extending electrical circuits in electrical systems. The bus bars carried in a housing assembly or bus way section approximately 10 feet or less in length with each housing commonly carrying either 3 or 4 bars secured by insulators in the respective housing. The housings comprise left and right U-shaped sections in longitudinally offset positions so that the left section extends beyond the right section at one end and the right section extends beyond the left section at the other end to provide complementary housing portions for nesting engagement with succeeding or preceding sections of busway when they are connected in tandem to extend the bars to a desired length. To connect the bus bars of one section with respective bus bars of another section a bus bar or joint clip assembly is provided in one of the extending ends of the housing.
Each clip assembly as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,733 includes an insulator carried by an extending end of each housing. The insulator in turn carries a U-shaped copper or aluminum clip member for each bus bar and one portion of each clip member grasps one cylindrical end of the respective bus bar and the other portion engages an aligned cylindrical end of a bus bar in another housing. The U-shaped clip is nested between two pair of spaced legs of a U-shaped steel spring member which prevents excessive deformation of the clip and serves to provide the pressure required to ensure electrical continuity between the bars. The described arrangement, however, requires that each clip and spring be fastened to the insulator by an individual fastener or rivet and this requires substantial assembly time in addition to the fastener cost and is therefore relatively expensive.